I was trying to figure out if Walt was wearing the watch from Jesse in the flash forward from the season premiere, but he sleeves were so long that there was no way to tell.

Correct. But morality/right-wrong wise they are the same. Inaction is just acting to not move arm.

Nope. This is the mistake people make. In both cases, the kids life is *under your control*. In not pressing the button, you are in effect making a decision and acting to kill the kid.

In both cases, the wealth of the person before, and after the experiment depends directly on whether the kid lives or not, and this outcome is completely controlled by the person.




Actually yes, they are.
In the charity case, the "new ingredient" is that the person does not know who will die, and when, if she does not donate. But someone will.
That is, some kid will be alive 1 year from now if the person donates, vs if the person does not donate; but that kid cannot be identified today, right now.
But logically, the fact that the kid cannot be pinpointed today does not make a difference ethics wise.

I argue that Walt crossed over into bad territory when he refused help and became a meth cook right in S1. He has not become "more" evil. If you rooted for him then, you should root for him now.

No, because the person did not get butchered or die when you did not give him money.
Now, if there was an abandoned new born baby out in the cold wailing for help, and you left it there where it died because you did not want to donate your time to take it to a hospital where it would further eat your tax money, then yes, you would have been a sicko.

Thanks for posting this. I just set the dvr to record the replay. I don't even know what Vince Gilligan looks like.

Really? No strings? Just that tiny string where a kid will die if you keep the money.

No, he did. I heard about it on the news later that night. I'm a maniac.

I'm surprised you have never seen what he looks like. He's featured prominently in the behind the scenes material on the Breaking Bad DVD/BD sets. In fact he spoke alot on camera in the Making Of Featurette about Face Off, which he directed in the season 4 set.....unless you don't own any of them.

In that featurette they showed it took 19 takes to get the Gus face blown off scene right. Gilligan is a total perfectionist as a director and that scene had to be perfect for him.

I'll have to catch that episode of Conan. Also it's great that a creator gets to be the guest these days.

I've listened to some of the commentaries, but haven't watched most of the extras. I had a hard enough time trying to find time for a marathon before the new season started. I only made it through about 10 episodes.

Thanks for spoiling it. I still haven't seen the Conan episode yet.

He's not bald?!

Actually, he does look familiar. I've probably seen him before and just never connected the face to the name.

Yep, never seen him either. All my Breaking Bad viewing has been off-air/streaming.

No, that would be Matthew Weiner.

It was really interesting I was at the Breaking Bad panel at Comic Con last month and Vince and Bryan at one point were discussing when they though Walt actually tipped over into being completely "bad" and kind of not redeemable. The tipping point seemed very early for them, basically when Walt was cooking and turned down the money to pay for his treatment out of pride. For some reason it looks like that part didn't make the panel videos I see on youtube, but its a really interesting panel if anyone wants to watch.
Of course *SPOILERS*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW_szevTsrg

That panel is fascinating. I love how that idiot TV Guide rep just let spoilers fly at one point (without even realizing it). You could tell Bryan and Vince were so pissed.

Okay, I really feel the need to jump in here now. Skyler is perfectly justified in everything she's threatened. Her husband is a member, a leader even, of a major drug cartel. He's a cold-blooded killer, and we know him to be a sociopath, even though his wife probably only suspects him of that at this point. He made a rational decision to become a felon, with the excuse that he was helping his family, yet, when offered the opportunity to leave the criminal life (and this was early on in the series, remember) he turned it down. This is because Walter White is not a good person. He probably never has been a good person, yet only recently has he had the opportunity to allow his violent antisocial personality to flower. Skyler understands this and wants out.

If Walt really wanted what's best for his family he'd stop cooking meth, or rather, would never have started to begin with. He's using this "I love my family" bullshit as an excuse to kill people and ruin lives.

I don't think he's a sociopath in the truest sense. He has, on occassion, demonstrated a sense of empathy and guilt. I think he's actually a narcissist. Everything he does is about ego. If he doesn't get the respect and admiration he feels that he deserves, he has a temper tantrum of some sort. Whenever Jesse or someone else around him receives too much praise or adulation, Walt gets abusive and attacks their self-esteem or credibility with others. He can't stand playing second fiddle to anyone: not his old college buddy that out-achieved him in the business/scientific world and offers him financial assistance, or Hank who everyone thinks is so much more courageous and masculine than Walt, or Gus who dared to make him a lowly employee and was perceived by everyone else as "the real danger", or now Mike who keeps putting him in his place and reminding him how inferior he is compared to Gus. Honestly, deep down, I bet he wants Hank to figure everything out just so he can get credit for being so clever and powerful. He's dying to see that look of amazement and horror dawn on Hank's face as he recognizes his true glory.

Gilligan appearance on Conan

http://teamcoco.com/video/38827/vinc...f-breaking-bad

http://teamcoco.com/video/38832/vinc...g-breaking-bad

The clip starts at 2:47 on the second link, not really much of a spoiler.

Well put.

I agree. What I disagree was with how people are saying what Walt said in the bedroom made him more evil. In the bedroom he was just protecting his privilege of keeping his children.

Also, lets not forget that Skyler is a criminal too. If *she* really wanted what was best for he kids, she would take her kids, go to her brother and sister when Walt wasnt there, take everyone to the DEA, confess and go into witness protection without seeing Walt.

+1
I will also add that pre-cancer, Walt probably just bottled up his narcissism inside, and didnt show it, hoping that good things would come to him, fooling even himself that he was a nice guy, that money/fame etc did not matter. Good things didnt happen, and then cancer came, so now the gates are open for his true nature to come out.

An interesting point though, does Skylar even have anything to go to the DEA with? She doesn't have any information about Walt's associates, how he does his business, or even where. She doesn't seem to have much more than a rumour, and the DEA would need to put a tail on Walt to investigate (and of course everybody would change their habits if Skylar & the kids went into Witness Protection then & there).

About the only thing Skylar has is big stacks of cash. That they are paying legit taxes on. And that she is responsible for doing the accounting for. I'm guessing if it went to court just for that, Walt would have a 50/50 chance of walking, saying was a cash business and his angry wife/accountant was trying to set him up.

Seriously, does Skylar have anything for rolling over on Walt?

1. If the authorities take a closer look at their books, it will be obvious that the cash obtained was not through car wash means, thats why Skylar doesnt want a tax audit on her business.
2. The 600k or so money that was given to her lover for paying off IRS. There was no "aunt" and that cannot be hard to verify. Where could Skylar get that money on her own?
3. Gambling money story --- I think holes can be poked in that story too.
4. Dirt on the lawyer, the fake EPA guy. Walts fake donation fund.

Of course. The money in itself seals the deal, but of course there is much more like him killing Gus and the like. She goes with the 'I was terrified' story as to why she participated.

If they tracked and followed Walt, and listened to his calls for even 2 weeks they would bust the whole thing wide open and catch him red handed.

Yeah, she can tip them off about Walt cooking meth and killing Gus, but she doesn't have any evidence other than her word, right? They don't hand out witness protection just for a few hints.

As for tracking and following Walt, that was my point, that he probably wouldn't keep to his regular routine if his wife and kids just 'disappeared', would he? Skyler would need to keep living at home and going through the motions, all while she was co-operating with any gov't agents. I don't remember Walt saying anything incriminating on the phone lately (not even on the anonymous burner phones they surely use for business) but I do think they probably wouldn't be talking that freely in their own home, considering it could be bugged, and has been before (or is that just more of Walt's hubris?).

Probably over-thinking a show that's taken some fantastical leaps :/

Hm, again, doesn't most of that stuff incriminate Skyler more than Walt? Especially considering she's probably the accountant signing off on most of the stuff.

Saul also mentioned he had legit reciepts drawn up for Walt's gambling 'winnings', since it moved the tax liability from the casino to Walt. Though anyone like Hank that's probably been in his share of poker and other card games would poke a million holes in Walt's supposed 'gambling system', even just as a buddy hearing the story, nevermind a cop.

You're under thinking actually. Skyline has the money from his drug enterprise, they bought the carwash to launder it with Saul and his henchmen, that's RICO right there. She has Saul and what he did for Walt, and what he did to Beneke with both bribery and extortion. Huge jail time and a federal case against Walt and others just on that. Walt confessed to killing Gus to her, and yes, that is evidence. Him being a chemist would make for strong evidence for a homemade bomb. If they track Walt, they get to Jesse and Mike easily. Mike is already a target as he was Gus's henchmen, Jesse is a known criminal involved in meth. Maybe you aren't up to date on how sophisticated surveillance is these days, but they could track all three of them 24/7 and know everything they did, everywhere they went, every call they made and to whom and where. That ties Mike and Jesse to Madrigal, which they are already looking at actively, via the woman they are also already interested in. It would nail Saul again too, and him being a part of the conspiracy would negate client confidentiality. Within a week or so of surveillance they will do a cook at a bug house. That blows the pest control setup and is hard evidence of drug manufacturing and conspiracy, not to mention the RICO and the money laundering.

Skimlarp would be the perfect witness, she did not have her hands dirty besides the money. Her being uninvolved in the drugs, and his wife, would help with the credibility question in court, and she has inside info on everything, including a confession to murder.

So yes, she could burn him. I think he knows that and as he said, 'nothing is going to stop this train'. I suspect he's going to make sure she can't stop it.

I realize I said the same thing in the last thread, but I'm still absolutely shocked at how far I've turned on Jesse. I just want good things for Jesse. Most of the first couple seasons, I just wanted Walt to bump the stupid kid off. Now, I'm pulling for him to make it out of this happy and healthy.